Re: Fwd: FW: Pictures from London ~ this is beyond scary..

Hi there,

In reference to the mass email you just forwarded to me showing placard-bearing muslim extremists (which can also be seen on snopes: http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/muslimprotest.asp), thank you for showing us yet more evil muslims to justify yet more wars against large groups of people. I agree that these signs are pretty extreme. But I have four problems with the premise of this email:

1. It selects a small, vocal sample to represent the whole. Did you know that there's a small "christian" family in Topeka, Kansas that uses similar signs in the name of God? They insist that God hates America and will destroy it for being evil. Yet these few people are considered nutjobs, extremists, and in no way representative of Christianity as a whole, right? Nor do "christian" terrorists like Eric Rudolph and Timothy McVeigh (and many others) represent Christianity. So why does this small, sick but small, group of people stand in for an entire religion that, on the whole, IS peace-loving and reverential of life and freedom?

2. The purpose of this email is to incite hatred and violence against a group of people. Presumably, the point is that we should go out and slaughter every man, woman, and child who is Muslim. What Christian honestly believes that's what Jesus would do?

3. It ends with a classic call-to-arms against the "liberal media". This has become nothing more than a silly punchline. Not only does it further enflame tensions between progressives and conservatives (the LAST thing this country needs more of), but it's a meaningless cliche. Fox News is in no way liberal. Nor is CNN. Nor is every other major network (in other words ALL of them) that cave to corporate interests. When your news channel is run by a food company that is only interested in profit and ads, do you really think you're going to get honest, quality news?

4. But worse, that last remark about not seeing these pictures in Canada or the US is an outright lie. I don't know about Canadian coverage but the US actually covered this event extensively, as well as similar events all over the world. See, here's the trick, and why I find this kind of inflammatory email so deceitful and appalling - these pictures are from a London protest over Danish political cartoons in February of 2006 (over a year ago, not "recent"). Every country with a large Muslim population experienced the same thing. If you go back to papers of the time, you'll no doubt see some of these pictures. In fact, Jon Stewart did a great bit on The Daily Show about Muslim extremists protesting their depiction as violent reactives by...bombing embassies.

Obviously, these are some dangerous people. And yes, many people who call themselves Muslims are hell-bent on destroying Christians, democracies, and Americans in particular. But is declaring war on an entire religion the answer? What are we going to do, round up the Muslims and send them to concentration camps? Nuke their countries into oblivion? Do you really think that's what God wants His children to do to one another? Is that really what Jesus was teaching on the Mount?

The problem is, neither can you just invite them over for tea to work it out. They're not going to join you in counseling. And I suspect giving them fresh-baked cookies as a lure to bring them to church will not ultimately lead to their conversion.

So what's the solution? Yes, there's a problem. What's the solution? Ridicule liberals? That doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere. Elect another cowboy? Looks like that just made things about a zillion times worse. I think we've seen that for every "terrorist" we kill, we inspire a hundred of his friends and relatives to take up the cause against us. So what's the solution?

You might want to research a woman named Imaculee Ilibagiza. To start, here's a small description: "Imaculee Ilibagiza is a Rwandan woman hunted by her friends and neighbors during the Tutsi genocide in 1994. She lived for 91 days in a 3x6 bathroom with 6 other women and never made a sound. Her family was massacred in the most horrible way by people she knew and trusted."

Quick history lesson: by 1994 Rwanda was divided into two ethnic groups, Tutsis (the minority) and Hutus (majority). They'd had a history of war and tension, which escalated into a full-on genocide in April of 1994, in which millions of Hutus, armed with machetes, hacked to pieces every Tutsi they could hunt down, whether neighbor, friend, or family, man, woman, or child. No one in America noticed because, just a few months later, we were all glued to the tv as OJ Simpson drove a white bronco down the 405. And the Clinton Administration (lest anyone think I revere them in any way, which I don't) did absolutely nothing about the situation. You read that right - despite declaring ourselves the global police when it comes to oil-soaked dictatorships, we did absolutely nothing to stop Hutus from hacking the limbs off of small children or murdering their parents in front of their eyes. It wasn't until France, yes France, sent troops in did the genocide finally stop.

After Imaculee Ilibagiza's family was slaughtered, she convinced a local priest to hide her in his bathroom with 6 other women. He covered the door with furniture and didn't even tell his own family. For 91 days, they flushed only when he flushed in another room. They ate only what crumbs and scraps he could shove under the door when no one was looking. They slept propped up against one another, covered in filth. Again and again, they could see Hutus through the cracks searching the house for them, calling out to them, singing hunting songs, holding their machetes inches away from the hidden door.

So what did she do? Did she jump out, guns blazing, and mow down everyone in sight? No. Did she pass the time plotting her revenge? No. Did she send out mass emails convincing all her friends to bomb the bad guys? No. So what sustained her? How did she survive?

In her words, it was an unshakeable connection with God. A profound, intense connection so strong that she knew, beyond any doubt, that no harm would come to them. That faith sustained her for 91 days until the FRENCH (!) military finally intervened and set up safe zones. By the time she limped out of that bathroom, she weighed only 65 pounds.

But the ordeal wasn't over. Just a few hundred yards away from freedom, the women were surrounded by machete-armed Hutus determined to finish the job.

But here's the important part. This fragile woman could barely walk, much less fight back. Yet when a man stood directly in front of her and raised his machete, a man who had massacred dozens, if not hundreds of defenseless men, women, and children, you want to know what she did?

She loved him. She looked directly at him and loved him. And in her love, she forgave him.

So great was the power of her faith in God, so great was her connection with God, and so overpowering was the love that poured from her that she stopped this man in his tracks. Whatever look she gave him, whatever force she pointed in his direction, his response was to lower his hand and drop his machete, then stand aside and let them pass in peace.

THAT is how we'll end this violence. THAT is how we'll stop this insanity before millions more get killed and maimed by our hands or the hands of extremists. By letting God's love work through us and overwhelm those who would do us harm.

Frankly, I'm no longer interested in how the "liberal media" is hiding the truth, or how democrats or republicans are destroying our country. I'm not interested in stirring each other up with inflammatory emails, declaring war on other religions, or inciting hate and violence against people we don't know.

I'm interested in inciting a genuine connection with God. I'm interested in being inspired. I'm interested in loving my enemies so powerfully that they can no longer even conceive of doing me harm. I'm interested in pictures that remind me that God is at work in our lives. And that he doesn't pick sides. Most of all, I'm interested in remembering why America is great - because through our bounty and freedom we have the privilege of evolving in the truest sense of the word. We're not cavemen who can only stop someone by beating them into submission. We're better than that. We have great, great power. I'm interested in ways we can use that power to serve. And how to inspire our enemies to lay down their arms in peace, WITHOUT holding a gun or a nuke to their heads.

I see so many mass emails, like this one, that try to inspire violence and hatred against other human beings. And then mock or demonize anyone who thinks it's wrong to kill. I wonder if every person who forwards those emails has the courage to forward a call for compassion as well. Or is that more "liberal hooey"? I can think of one long-haired Jewish hippy who didn't think so. Since mass emails end with a challenge, here's one for you: choose your side. Hatred and violence? Or love and forgiveness? It starts with you.

Justin